Health

Pediatricians in the Netherlands are calling for a ban on the sale of energy drinks to children under the age of 18. According to the doctors, many children and teenagers suffer complaints like restlessness, fatigue and cardiac arrhythmia due to energy drinks.

French baby formula producer Lactalis is recalling over 12 million packages of its baby formula from stores in a total of 83 countries, including the Netherlands, due to concerns that the products may be contaminated with salmonella. "This is a preventative recall, worldwide and also from the Netherlands", a spokesperson for Lactalis said to AD.

A massive 22 percent of women in the Netherlands dealt with sexual violence at least once in their lives, according to a study by Rutgers. 11 percent of them were raped. Among men 6 percent fell victim to sexual violence, including 1 percent who were raped, NU.nl reports.

A high level of air pollutants triggered a Friday smog warning for the Netherlands, with possibility of "insufficient" air quality over the weekend. Air quality in the Randstad municipalities and in the south of the Netherlands was expected to be "poor", the Dutch health authority RIVM said in a statement.

A total of 434 people were treated for fireworks related injuries at the emergency rooms of Dutch hospitals over New Year's, a decrease of 8 percent compared to the year before. The number of victims under te age of 15 increased from 99 last year to 119 this year, according to a joint study by VeiligheidNL and broadcaster NOS.

Trauma surgeons treated 95 patients with firework injuries over New Year's, including 40 children. "The total number of victims increased by more than a quarter compared to last year", the Dutch association for trauma surgeons NVT said to ANP.

Nearly a third of the victims needed surgery immediately or a day later. About 30 percent sustained permanent damage, including 15 victims under the age of 16. A 14-year-old lost a hand, and a 13-year-old boy lost two fingers.

As of Monday, smoking is prohibited on the seven GVB ferry lines operating in Amsterdam. The decision was handed down by the municipality of Amsterdam, and the public transit firm GVB was set to adjust its regulations and passenger announcements.

Until the end of 2017, smoking was allowed only on the rear portion of the ferry boats which often created confusion. On top of that, due to frequent crowding, non smokers can not always choose to place themselves in the non smoking sections.

A 14-year-old boy in Amsterdam was seriously injured in a New Year's Day fireworks accident that left him without a hand. The accident was caused by the premature blast of explosives that were bound together.

Two other boys, aged 10 and 11, also received facial injuries from the incident. All three were transported to an area hospital.

The accident happened just before 3:44 p.m. on the Willem Molengraaffstraat in the Slotermeer area of the city. Emergency services sent two ambulances to the seen along with a trauma team in a helicopter.

New Year's celebrations with fireworks in the Netherlands generally go hand-in-hand with dozens of firework related injuries, and this year was no exception. The Eye Hospital in Rotterdam already admitted eight people with a total of 10 injured eyes. And dozens of people were admitted to hospital with burns and other firework related injuries.

With the new year starting, the Dutch government is implementing a number of new laws and changing some existing ones. Here follows some highlights on the laws that are changing next year. With a week of this year still left, more law changes may be added.

A professor at the university medical center in Maastricht is no longer the head of the Transplantation Immunology department after a flood of criticism on his behavior. Former employees call working under him "North Korean conditions" and accuse him of mistreating coworkers and PhD students for years, NOS reports.

It is not clear whether this professor was dismissed as department head, or stepped down on his own. He still works at the hospital, but only as a researcher and as supervisor for PhD students, according to the broadcaster.

On Wednesday the court in The Hague ruled against Milieudefensie in a lawsuit filed by the environmental group to force the Dutch government to take more measures to reduce air pollution. According to the court, the Dutch State is taking sufficient measures to improve air quality, NU.nl reports.

A carbon monoxide leak at pizzeria Fratelli in Leidschendam left 19 people feeling unwell on Christmas. Emergency services responded to the Italian restaurant on Sluiskant over lunch time after receiving a report of people falling ill, RTL Nieuws reports.

National Police Chief Erik Akerboom wants a mental health worker available in every neighborhood in the Netherlands. The police increasingly have to respond to emergency situations involving people with mental health problems, and this can be avoided if they get the help they need before things get out of hand, he said in an interview with newspaper AD.

The Dutch population will continue to grow in the coming decades to over 18.4 million people by 2060, according to the latest prognosis by Statistics Netherlands. The 18 millionth inhabitant is expected in 2031. By 2040 almost a quarter of the Dutch population will be elderly, and by 2060 just over a third will have their roots in the outside world, according to the stats office.

It is possible that over 100 former Defense employees have died as a direct result of working with paint and grit containing the highly toxic and carcinogenic chromium-6, according to lawyer Rob Bedaux. He is representing around 100 other former Defense employees and will raise this issue in court on Tuesday, the Telegraaf reports.

Agricultural organization LTO Nederland is threatening to take Dutch food safety authority NVWA to court over the fipronil contaminated egg scandal earlier this year. The NVWA must pay back the damages poultry farmers suffered due to this crisis, according to LTO. So far 120 poultry farmers joined this action in claiming damages around 50 million euros, RTL Nieuws reports.

Couples who live together, especially those without children, are the most often prosperous and most satisfied and healthy people in the Netherlands. Older people, single people and especially single parents with young children score less well on these factors, according to Statistics Netherlands' quality of life study for 2017.

The demand for medical marijuana is soaring in the Netherlands. Over the past five years the number of doctor's prescriptions for medical marijuana grew by more than 400 percent to over 50 thousand this year, according to figures from the foundation of pharmaceutical statistics SFK, AD reports.

Emergency services responded to the Chemelot industrial estate near Geleen on Wednesday morning after an alarm was triggered for an ammonia leak. A number of streets in the neighboring district of Lindenheuvel are closed to traffic as a precaution, 1Limburg reports.

The toxic substance leaked around 7:45 a.m., according to the newspaper. Ambulances and fire brigade measuring teams responded. Nobody was injured, and firefighters measured no risky quantities of the hazardous substance around the industrial estate.

A 74-year-old Islamic scholar from Oudenbosch can't be prosecuted for rape, abuse and threats because he suffers from dementia, an expert concluded after examining the man. The neurologist, psychiatrist and psychologist presented his conclusions in the court in Breda on Monday, Omroep Brabant reports.

Health insurers no longer make enough money, or even suffer losses, from supplemental health insurance policies, according to Dutch central bank DNB. Insurers may stop offering these supplemental policies in the future, which will result in higher healthcare costs for Dutch consumers, NOS reports.

An apartment building on Valkenhorst in Leiden was evacuated just after midnight after the fire department discovered that several geysers in the building emit far too much carbon monoxide. The fire brigade was called in after a family living in the building went to hospital when they felt ill, Omroep West reports.

The fire brigade evacuated all 42 homes in the building. Around 10 people were checked by ambulance personnel. Residents were given shelter in an adjacent shopping mall.